2019 Legislative Session

Lawmakers aim to make voter registration automatic, more convenient

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A group of legislators want to ensure more New Mexicans can vote by making registration easier. They’re proposing automatic voter registration when a person gets a driver’s license and they also want to allow registration right at the polls. Eligible voters already can register or update their registration when applying for or renewing a driver’s license or identification at the Motor Vehicle Division. House Bill 84 would make that process automatic, with an opt-out option for those who don’t want to register. The bill is sponsored by Sen. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, and Democratic representatives from Albuquerque and Corrales — Daymon Ely, Debra Sariñana, Patricia Roybal Caballero and Joy Garratt.

Senate Rules quick to pass lobbyist loophole fix

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The Senate Rules committee made quick work this morning passing a bill to reverse a measure in 2016 that reduced the amount of spending lobbyists are required to report. This year’s bill, sponsored by Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, D-Albuquerque, is included on the so-called “rocket docket,” a list of bills assigned to just one committee with the goal of fast-tracking them for signature by New Mexico’s new Democratic governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham. This video created by New Mexico In Depth in 2017 features Ivey-Soto explaining the problem created by the 2016 changes to lobbyist disclosure requirements.The rocket docket bills all previously passed the Legislature only to be vetoed by former Republican governor Susana Martinez. In her speech to a joint session of the Legislature on opening day, Lujan Grisham singled out Ivey-Soto’s bill, saying she favored signing the lobbyist disclosure measure. In front of the Senate Rules committee today, Ivey-Soto gave a familiar rundown of what happened in 2016, explaining that a bill he sponsored that year “inadvertently” dropped requirements that lobbyists report spending under $100.

2019 legislative session

Breaking down the numbers: Diversity in the House

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Democratic Speaker of the House Brian Egolf kicked off the 54th legislative session last week by acknowledging the diversity he saw arrayed before him in the Legislature’s lower chamber. “We start with the most diverse House of Representatives our state has ever seen,” the Santa Fe Democrat told a chamber teeming with fellow lawmakers, their families, friends and legislative staff. “We are showing the rest of the country  what it means when people of diverse backgrounds, diverse faiths, and of diverse ideas come together to work for the betterment of our people in this state.”

It’s difficult to assess if Egolf’s statement is historically accurate. The Legislative Council Services library doesn’t have historical data about how the Legislature has changed over the years, regarding ethnic and racial diversity. But they do have data about women.

Lobbyists dole out quarter million in lead up to session

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Santa Fe is known for food. Really good food. In fact, the culinary scene is known to foodies across the country – maybe the globe – thanks to periodic travel and food pieces over the decades in a variety of publications, including the New York Times. So it is no surprise that lobbyists would exploit Santa Fe’s culinary abundance as a way to build or maintain relationships with New Mexico’s policy makers. Forty one lobbyists, according to filings at the Secretary of State’s office, spent $35,000 since early October, about half of it at restaurants and hotels, on small groups of legislators, or in a few cases, legislative committees.

2019 legislative session

New Mexico is getting out there with new outdoor recreation position

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Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s state of the state address mentioned a new job title in her administration: an outdoor recreation coordinator. “The outdoor recreation coordinator will work to promote and support outdoor recreation across the state,” Nora Meyers Sackett, deputy press secretary for Grisham, wrote in an email.  “Much in the same way that the film office works to facilitate film business in New Mexico, the outdoor recreation position will work with communities, outdoor recreation businesses, the hospitality industry, and our marketing and tourism sectors to further grow the industry and attract visitors to New Mexico to experience our great outdoors.”

The new position would mark another step toward New Mexico joining a growing movement to bolster the outdoor industry as an economic force. The previous administration’s #NewMexicoTrue campaign could be seen as an early foray here, and in May, Las Cruces hosted the New Mexico Outdoor Economics Conference, with a keynote speech from U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich. Sen. Jeff Steinborn and Rep. Nathan Small, both Democrats from Las Cruces, sponsored memorials requesting the tourism and economic departments study the effects of creating a state office of outdoor recreation in 2017 and 2018. The move would match one made by Colorado, Montana, North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming.

With surplus, now is the time for New Mexico to go big

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New Mexico has existed under a cloud of false austerity for the past eight years. While the Martinez administration, as well as some members of the Senate, preached austerity they really meant it for poor and working families. Wealthy developers and out-of-state corporations were not only given the perks of tax cuts and deregulation, they have used their power and influence to kill measures like raising the minimum wage and fully funding early education. For eight years, the calls for everyone to pay their fair share and investing in families, workers and education have fallen on deaf ears with little change. The difference now, however, is that New Mexicans signaled in a big way that they are ready for change.

Legislature faces both peril, opportunity in 2019

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With New Mexico’s politics trending hard left, what is a fiscally conservative think tank that focuses on New Mexico’s still-shaky economic situation to do? Quite simply, there will be more to do than ever. For starters, New Mexico’s $1.1 billion oil-generated surplus brings both opportunity and peril. The Rio Grande Foundation has long called for reform of our state’s broken and politically manipulated gross receipts tax. The surplus is an opportunity for legislators to reform a broken system in ways that make New Mexico’s tax structure economically competitive in ways that encourage businesses to stay in New Mexico.

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Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham shoots for the moon

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On Tuesday, there was a pronounced note of positivity for legislators in the Democratic majority as they grasped the opportunity to move on long pent-up agendas with a Democratic governor. It’s honeymoon time. And they came to opening day of the 2019 legislative session ready to play. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a three-term congresswoman and former longtime cabinet secretary in state government, has repeatedly trumpeted her hopes for New Mexico to make a “moonshot” for education in her first session. But in a 50-minute speech Tuesday it sounded like she was shooting for the moon, too.

Oil and gas is responsible for state’s renaissance in business and communities

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A new era is on the horizon for New Mexico. The future for this industry in the state has never been brighter. Of course, this is not only true for New Mexico’s political transition, it’s true for the energy renaissance taking place across America and right here in the Land of Enchantment. Earlier this year, the Energy Information Agency reported that the US became the largest producer of crude oil in the world. This spectacular accomplishment reflects the idea that we should have greater control of our energy future, making our country more secure, and allowing communities and economies to flourish.

It’s Time to Deliver for New Mexico’s Working Families in the 2019 Legislative Session

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Elections have consequences — or at least they should. The resounding victory of Democrats in the 2018 election with an expanded majority in the state House, and Democrats holding every statewide office should result in passage of a real working families’ agenda. It is time for state leaders to deliver a real working families’ agenda in the 2019 legislative session that should include:

Raising the minimum wage — The top priority for policymakers this session must be to raise the minimum wage from the current poverty wage of $7.25 per hour to a a living wage of $15 per hour. Raising New Mexico’s minimum wage gradually over the next few years to $15 would lift pay for 370,000 workers, strengthening families, communities, and our state’s economy. Unfortunately, an increase to $15 per hour — even gradually — seems politically difficult even with the Democratic majority in both houses of the legislature and a Democratic governor.